“Arrests of teachers on UNESCO International Mother Language Day and journalists on UNESCO Press Freedom Day should suspend Iran from UNESCO, without need to mention its terrorism sponsorship and its missile/potential nuclear threats to the Middle East.”

Paris, 3 October 2017

In a letter to outgoing UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed indignation at Iran’s candidacy for Chair of the 58 member-state Executive Board, to be voted at its 202nd meeting in Paris.

Samuels exposed:

1) Information apparently leaked during the confirmation hearing for Mahmoud Alavi as Intelligence Minister in Presidenr Rouhani’s cabinet. Alavi was,reportedly, a member of Ayatollah Khomeini’s so called “Death Committee” that massacred over 30,000 political prisoners across the country, including pregnant women and teenage girls in 1988. Alavi was responsible for these atrocities in “the UNESCO prison" in Dezful, a site listed by Iran's Mehr News agency as a candidate for World Heritage status... "Eye-witnesses claim that, on the order of Alavi, under 18-year-olds were executed in groups of two or three in the barren backyard section of UNESCO Dezful prison.”See: http://en.mehrnews.com/news/103973/UNESCO-to-register-Dezful-in-World-Heritage-List

2) The letter continued: “If the UNESCO prison case is insufficient, in June 2017, the UNESCO 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including the UNESCO Education 2030, were violently revoked by Supreme Leader Khamenei, principally on grounds of its programme for ‘gender equality’, He protested: “people sit in the United Nations and establish an intellectual, cultural, scientific system for all nations, to have the whole world think as they wish them to”… “Why should our educational system be defined by those in UNESCO?”“The regime will not abide by the UNESCO 2030 terms to expand and equalize education for all.” On gender equality in education, Iran's Supreme Leader claims: “One of the main mistakes of the Western mentality about women is raising the very issue of gender equality”… “there is no reason for Iran to sign a document that others have prepared for us, and thus destroy our own culture.”See: https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-world/23012-iran-s-supreme-revolutionary-cultural-council-abolished-2030-unesco-document?tmpl=component&print=

-3 May, UNESCO World Press Freedom Day was marked by the arrest of print, television and online journalists, noted in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom index, as “Iran is one of the world’s five biggest prisons for media, ranked 165 out of 180 countries studied.”See: rsf.org/en/iran

“Madam Director-General, there seems no need to add Jewish concerns – outrageous Holocaust denial cartoon contests, nuclear ambitions, ballistic missiles, incitement against and declarations of genocidal intent to annihilate Israel. Iran’s damage to the name of UNESCO is self-evident…”

“We urge you to convince the states, members of the UNESCO Executive Board, to ensure that Iran is eliminated as a candidate to their Chair.”

“May your success in this matter be a legacy for your successor to follow,” urged Samuels.

The Biblical Prophet Amos proclaimed that, “Thus said the Lord: for the three crimes, now four, of Damascus, I will not grant penance” (Bible, Amos 1:3)… Perhaps the prophet meant Tehran!” concluded Samuels.